University of Minnesota literary magazine Ivory Tower will print about 1,000 copies of their publication this year, less than half of last year’s total, as a result of a tight budget and the increasing presence of online publishing, said Editor in Chief Phil Hart.

ThreeSixty reporters Erika Roedl and Edwin Flowers interviewed Brother Ali by phone this fall after he made a public service announcement supporting an effort by Minneapolis public schools to persuade people who have dropped out of school to return. The rapper left high school without a diploma. This is an edited version of their conversation.

It takes a certain skill set to craft the perfect pop song, to boil down complex emotions into three or four minutes that are catchy, but not overlong. It takes a whole different skill set to craft a musical, where those complex emotions are expressed by numerous characters, through song, over the course of two or three hours.